Nina Hagen - I'm a Believer

I love when avant-garde rockers covers pop songs!
This one is different from what I would have expected from the diva of punk.



More poppy yet!?


Is that Nina? So pretty under the Munster make-up*? What a waste she hid that.

And Nina with a symphony orchestra backup!



*Seems to be, here's a pic of her with less extreme make-up. Clearly the same features.

Again: what a shame. I wonder if she was afraid of not being taken seriously if she looked like just another pretty pop doll?
Or if she, like many, felt she had to take on a mask, to become somebody else, in order to let the extreme creations flow freely?

Update:

thanks to A: Nina at 19, now for something entirely different!  Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen! 
Aw, so cute. 

How the NSA Almost Killed the Internet, by Steven Levy

Now that is one bitchin' poster.

How the NSA Almost Killed the Internet, article by Steven Levy
During the conversation, the officials could barely contain the frustration they feel about how the world—and their fellow Americans—views them post-Snowden. They have read Brandon Downey’s heartbroken lament about his own government breaking into his beloved data center. They understand that journalism conferences routinely host sessions on protecting information from government snoops, as if we were living in some Soviet society. And they are aware that multiple security specialists in the nation’s top tech corporations now consider the US government their prime adversary.

But they do not see any of those points as a reason to stop gathering data. They chalk all of that negativity up to monumental misunderstandings triggered by a lone leaker and a hostile press. NSA employees see themselves as dealing with genuine deadly threats to the nation, and it makes them crazy when people assume that spooks at Fort Meade are intent on stealing their privacy.

“It’s almost delusional,” Ledgett says. “I wish I could get to the high mountaintop to scream, ‘You’re not a target!’”
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Another quote:
President Obama weighed in. While implicitly confirming the program (and condemning the leak), he said, “With respect to the Internet and emails, this does not apply to US citizens and does not apply to people living in the United States.”

Ah, it is all right then. It is perfectly ethical and legal to spy on everybody, so long as they are not citizens of one's own country! Who cares about the rights of "forriners"?

And now for a bit of satire: 

In October of 2017, a breakthrough on the war on terrorism was finally made, the so-called total-openness-era. 
133 of the biggest nations on Earth made a deal with the USA: recognizing that the people who were the hardest to spy upon were those smart enough to not use the Internet at all, these nations promised to help the USA implement an extensive spy network: Every piece of mail would be x-rayed and the image sent to NSA. Every room of every single building in a country would be set up with microphones and spy cameras, and the sound and images sent to NSA. 
Negotiations are still going on as to what the NSA/US gov. would do in return. When talked to, they are slightly confused. "Why would we have to give you guys anything in return?" they say, "we are the good guys. Don't we always come and protect you guys?"
Then they wink and whisper: "Anyhow, don't worry, we have things well set up here. After all, everybody in USA basically is a foreigner or descendant of one...

A comment from the side lines

Under the Resolutions post, "Anonymous" commented:

Are you still pretending to be interested in photography? Face it, you're a poseur. You like buying cameras, but you don't care about photography or photographers.
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Grave error?

Thanks to Mikko Hypponen ‏@mikko
When you buy an iPad from Apple's web store, you get a free engraving. You get two lines with any text you want. 

Talking about LED light...

I've bought a small flashlight, a LED Lenser P5. But just like with so many other things, these days "small" is not synonymous with "weak".

I love quality tools of all kinds. Quality just gives its own pleasure, no matter the purpose. The P5 is not "Walmart priced", but to me it's easily worth it.

This flashlight, believe it or not, only takes a single AA battery. That lasts for about 3 hours. It seemingly only has one LED, but man, can that put out the light. I remember a big flashlight I had many years ago. It used three batteries, of the big, fat ones. When the lights were on, that one could just give a rather weak lighter spot on the wall. But this one makes a big, very even, bright area of light.

Lookkit this tiny thing. It comes with a strong nylon holster, which can sit on a belt for example, and it has one of those closed metal hooks mountaineers use. 

These are taken with the light zoomed out, and zoomed in. The light from this small flashlight is so good that in the pictures it looks like the room lights were off, but they were not! I was 5-6 feet from the wall.

They say this puts out "105 Lumens". LED Lenser has many models, the biggest, X21R is huge, costs over $400, and puts out... 1600 Lumens!! Wow, I'd like to try that one. That must be for searching for lost people in the woods and such.

Sharpness correction, the illusion

I was editing a set of the beautiful new model Edwige, when I came across one picture I really liked. But there was a problem: it was out of focus. Just not sharp.
To make it worse, it was from a Nikon D800, which means enormous files. And when people first see a photo on the web, they will often see it at 100%, just a little slice of the picture. And viewed like that it will look much more blurry than if viewed so you see the whole picture, especially in a print.

I liked it enough that I wanted to salvage it, so I tried Smart Sharpen in Photoshop.
And it is interesting, unlike what Hollywood would like us to believe, you just can't create details in a photo which weren't there to begin with!!
But: you can create the illusion of sharpness, so to speak. What the Sharpness correction tools do is enhance "accutance", which is the border contrast between two areas. Sort of like it makes little ridges along the borders of parts. This makes a photo seem much sharper without actually calling up any more detail than you already could see.

(Click for big pic.) Before:

After:

Abracadabra.


Update: A. said:

Before the age of Photoshop this effect was used, albeit at the negative film development stage, by using an acutance developer such as "Neofin Blue". This was used with minimal agitation so that the exhausted developer from an area that was being developed as a dark area would form a lighter edge to that area, and the fresh developer covering the lighter areas would develop a darker edge to the lighter areas.
(Simplified explanation.)
Peter R. D.

The ultimate developer with this effect was Agfa Rodinal. It made grain rough, and shadows too dark, but by gawd, it make photos looks *sharp*. It was fantastic. Once I had seen photos like that, I didn't helm until I had found out how he did it.

Jim Tardio photos, and a tiny zoom lens

Jim Tardio Photos. 

I was fortunate to spend the week before Christmas in Rome, Italy. The weather was wonderful, the food was delicious, and the people of the Eternal City were gracious and inviting. I also got the chance to try my new Panasonic GX-7 camera coupled with the new 12-32 pancake zoom lens.

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Great light in his photos.

I took a look at the brand new Panasonic super-compact 12-32mm (24-63mm equivalent) zoom for M4/3, and it is impressive. Both Panasonic and Olympus are making some gargantuan steps in miniturising lenses without sacrificing image quality. (In fact, the reviews of this tiny lens are damn good.)

A "pancake" zoom lens. My world is shook, I thought not it could'est be done. 

New years resolutions

[Thanks to Dave D]

My new years resolutions:

VGA
XGA
16MP
1600x2560
 and maybe even
4k

"Why I Use Micro Four Thirds Cameras" (updated)

A simple and entertaining explanation of the advantages and disadvantages of the Micro Four Thirds system (which of course includes the Olympus E-M1 mentioned below).

Update:

Russ said...

I've heard other photography pundits describe the Micro Four Thirds system as the new 35mm. Easily transportable and easy to use although limited resolution. 

Likewise, because full frame systems (ex., Nikon D800) have such high resolution, they've become the new medium format.

Yes. I'm not surprised others have said that too. 

I think it needs adding that this just comparison on principle. Because M4/3 system is in so many ways, including image quality, better than 35mm. And the same is true for full-frame compared to old medium format. Much better, faster, more flexible, etc. And now it's becoming mirrorless, it, like M4/3, is also becoming lighter and more compact. (It'll take a while to make all new lenses, though.)

In other words, they the equivalent of those systems For A New Century. M4/3 for serious-amateur and pro use. Full Frame for pros who are extra serious, or need extra-high resolution (or low light power), or still need to impress their clients with big, heavy, expensive gear. 

... Not to forget, if the tech progresses in the next five years like it has in the past five, holy cow, it will far surpass those older systems. Just a couple of years ago, M4/3 was too slow in focusing for moving subjects, and it wasn't really any good over 800 ISO. That has changed dramatically. 

E-M1 sweeps the awards

In a quite entertaining article, Mike J of The Online Photographer finds his Camera of the Year. It coincides with my own favorite camera, the all-round 
scrumptious Olympus OM-D E-M1.
Compact, but tough, fast, sharp, top ergonomics, great anti-shake, excellent selection of lenses...
... Now if only the on-off button was not on the left side of the camera so you can't turn in on one-handedly... Grrrr. (Actually this does not bother me much, but heck, nothing is perfect in this world, there's gotta be something to grumble about.)

(And Michael Reichman of The Luminous Landscape is on the same page.)

Yes, you can get sharper images (in big prints) and go into lower light with a full frame camera like the excellent Nikon D800, but you have to weigh this (literally) against the significantly added weight of those cameras and lenses. And their bigger sizes, and the bigger prices. All of those tend to be about 2x or more, so far from insignificant.
Me, I think that Micro Four Thirds is the new 35mm, and Full Frame is the new Medium Format.

Katy Perry - Making of the "Unconditionally" Music Video

Stephen Gillette photos

Our old pal Stephen Gillette (no, sadly no heir to the Gillette fortune), a fellow connoiseur of compact cameras, still makes cool photos. 

Amongst other things, he has made a series of circular photos, something you don't see often these days.